Campus News

Running cross-country for cancer awareness

By JASON HOWALD

“The experience let me use running as a way to help others. And that was a rewarding experience.”

Patricia Lorquet, UB senior and participant

4K for Cancer

Waking up at 4:30 a.m. to a deafeningly loud rooster named
Alexis while lying on the unforgiving floor of a high school gym in
Nebraska is nobody’s idea of a relaxing summer. But while
many of her classmates may have spent their mornings cozy in bed,
UB student Patricia Lorquet’s early-morning awakening was
just part of the routine.

Lorquet, a senior majoring in biological sciences, traded in a
summer of internships and resume-boosting for a pair of running
shoes and a spot in the deceivingly named 4K for Cancer.

But instead of 4 kilometers, this race spanned more than 4,000
miles, with Lorquet and 28 teammates running from San Francisco to
New York to help raise money and awareness for the Ulman Cancer
Fund, an organization dedicated to helping young adults affected by
the disease.

Each runner was asked to raise a minimum of $4,500 before the
run began on June 18. Runners had their own personal fundraising
page and access to program coordinators and alumni to help
kick-start their personal campaign. Lorquet raised $4,820.

Runners were part of a team based on the city in which they
wanted to cross the finish line. As a member of Team New York,
Lorquet and her teammates were able to raise $180,000, giving their
team the highest fundraising total of the six teams.

“We visited cancer facilities and got to interact with
patients,” Lorquet says. “So it was cool to actually
see what our money and hard work was going toward.”

Lorquet ran cross-country while attending Hillcrest High School
in Jamaica, Queens, and has continued as a recreational runner. But
the 4K for Cancer is no high school meet. She trained seven days a
week, and unlike high school, she really would be running across
the country. To increase their endurance, she and her teammates
ran a minimum of four miles a day during the week, with runs that
could go up to 13 miles on the weekend. Cross-training also was
done on non-running days to promote strength and flexibility in
muscles not used while running.

But even with the countless hours of preparation and increasing
demands on her body, Lorquet found this seemingly foolproof plan
could only prepare her so much.

“When we were actually running, we couldn’t take
into account the temperature and the elevation,” she says.
“Those are the type of things the training plan
couldn’t prepare you for.”

Case in point: As a New York City native, Lorquet is accustomed
to running in a relatively flat and humid environment. Consider
running through a dry heat wave in San Francisco, or facing a
900-foot increase in elevation over only two miles near Lassen
Volcanic National Park in Northern California.

“The most elevation I’ve encountered is probably 100
to 200 feet,” she says. “So going up 900 feet within
two miles was crazy.”

Lorquet and the other 28 members of Team New York were divided
into two 15-passenger vans. The 15 in each van then were split into
pairs, with the extra person driving the van during that cycle. The
first van started from the city the team had stayed in the night
before. The first two running partners were dropped off along the
route for their two-mile stretch, and the van continued along the
route to wait for the first two runners. Once a pair finished its
two miles, the next two runners would hop out of the van and begin
theirs. Each runner ended up running anywhere from six to 16 miles
per day.

The first van continued this routine until it reached the midway
point of that day’s route, where the second van was waiting.
The first van then drove to the designated host site for the night,
while the runners in the second van began running their two-mile
increments until they reached the host site. Host sites consisted
of churches, YMCAs and high school gyms.

This routine lasted for 49 days; the teams ran on 39 days and
rested on 10.

Days were long and physically exhausting. For Lorquet, having a
partner to run with made all the difference.

“Having someone with you, having someone to take your mind
off the run, especially in excruciating conditions, was definitely
comforting,” she says.

There were discouraging times. One day in Wyoming at the
beginning of a two-mile interval, Lorquet’s Achilles tendon
began to give out. The support in the heel of her shoe had weakened
due to wear and tear. She thought she wouldn’t be able to
finish, but her partner stayed by her side, doing her best to keep
Lorquet’s mind off of the pain.

The runners switched partners every day. New partners meant
different running abilities, ranging from novice recreational
runners to avid marathoners. But their backgrounds and expertise
didn’t matter as much as the reason for being there.

“We were all there for the same reason,” Lorquet
says. “We weren’t there to compete with each other or
run a PR.”

She says that each morning after breakfast, all the runners
gathered in a circle, and one would read or tell a story about a
cancer survivor or someone who had lost the battle. Afterward, the
runners would go around the circle and name a person they were
dedicating their day to. This daily routine was called the
dedication circle.

Dedications ranged from a loved one to someone they had just met
the day before. Dedications could be repeated or changed each day.
Lorquet dedicated most of her days to her cousin, McKenzie, who
died from leukemia at 17.

After the dedications, the runners wrote the names of the people
they mentioned on the back of their legs in black marker.

Lorquet says the dedication circles helped the runners stay
motivated and brought them closer as a team, connecting them with
the people they were running for.

And not every day consisted of early risings and long days on
the road. The runners used the 10 rest days to sightsee or catch up
on sleep. On five of the rest days — called service days
— Lorquet and her teammates had the opportunity to visit a
cancer center and talk with patients, tour the facility and drop
off chemo care bags.

The chemo bags consisted of fuzzy socks, a puzzle book, a
notepad, a pen, a backscratcher, a blanket, information about the
organization and Lemon Heads, candy that is said to counteract the
metallic taste caused by chemo treatment.

Lorquet remembers being moved and motivated by the
patients’ stories and their overall resolve to keep
fighting.

“After months of fundraising and advocating for young
adults with cancer, it was great to meet people the Ulman Cancer
Fund was helping,” she says.

On the final day of the run on Aug. 5 — with 26 miles to
go — the runners were given the option of taking a shuttle to
the last two-mile interval, which started at the Brooklyn Bridge,
or running all 26 miles. Lorquet says every runner decided to try
to run the distance, and she ran 20 of the 26 miles that final
day.

The entire team ran the final two miles together. In familiar
territory for the first time in 48 days, Lorquet was at the head of
the pack.

“I knew I was home when I started seeing familiar sights
and interacting with rude cyclists again,” she jokes.

Upon finishing the last two miles, she was met by several family
members and friends. Pictures were taken at a closing ceremony.
Runners accepted medals and exchanged memories.

Now well into her senior year at UB, Lorquet is adjusting to
student life, eating three full meals a day, going to class,
studying — not to mention sleeping in an actual bed. She
welcomes her daily routine, but says she’s not done yet.

The demands of the 4K for Cancer could have driven a
less-motivated person to stay on the sidelines, but Lorquet is back
on the road again, training for the New York City marathon next
month.

“The experience let me use running as a way to help
others,” she says. “And that was a rewarding
experience.”

For more information about
the Ulman Cancer Fund, 4K for Cancer and other fundraising trips,
visit the race website.